The Textile Manufactures of India

Fri 5th August 201111am – 3pm (lunch included)

Harris Museum & Art Gallery
Market Square, Preston PR1 2PP

The Textile Manufactures of India is an important collection of 700 historic Asian textile samples put together in 1866 by John Forbes Watson. Watson worked at the India Museum, London, which had a large collection of South Asian textiles in its stores. He was keen for the collection to be of benefit to British industry and the idea behind the 18 volumes of samples was to show the sorts of fabrics used in India to the British manufacturers, so they might have a better understanding of this potential market. The Collection is currently held in the Harris Museum archives and has been the basis for an exhibition within the 2012 Cultural Olympiad project Stories of the World, a scheme aimed to encourage young people to co-curate exhibitions which tell a story of Britain’s place in the world.

Curator Caroline Alexander at the Harris will host the Study Day for Textile Society members, where it will be possible to examine The Textile Manufactures of India Collection in more depth. There will be a tour of the exhibition Global Threads led by the young curator team. There will also be a session covering a range of topics such as the digitalisation and the cataloguing of the textiles and how museums can engage younger audiences in textile exhibitions and projects.